In 1991 she acknowledged that GDR team doctors had given her injections of

• In 1991, she acknowledged that GDR team doctors had given her injections of drugs. • Ender said that she did not know at the time, nor had she ever subsequently found out, exactly what the drugs were.

Youth sports in GDR

Success of East Germans in sports • Berlin wall in 1961, during the Cold War. • Nationales Olympisches Komitee der DDR in 1965. It was recognized as an independent NOC by the IOC in 1968. • In 1968 GDR ceased participation in the United German team and sent a separate East German team from 1968 to 1988, other than absences in the summer of 1984 in support of the Soviet-led boycott of the 1984 Summer Olympics. • GDR, with a population of about 16 million, was very successful at the Olympics. • From 1976 to 1988, it came second in all three of their summer Olympics, behind the Soviet Union, and well ahead of larger West Germany. • At winter Olympics GDR won 4 second place rankings and a first in the 1984 Winter Olympics.

GDR vs. West Germany • Relations between the two Germanies were not helped by the steady defection of GDR athletes to the West where they competed on West German club and national teams. • Internationally, the GDR faced continuing problems with acceptance. The United States refused to grant the East Germans visas to compete in the World Modern Pentathlon Championships in Harrisburg in 1959 or in the 1959 Pre-Olympics in Squaw Valley. • Ten members of the East German team who came for the 1960 Winter Olympics at Squaw Valley also were not admitted to the United States.

Road to recognition • The Allied Travel Office in West Berlin refused to grant visas to any GDR athletes who wanted to attend competitions in various North Athletic Treaty Organization (NATO) States. • In the period 1957-1967, the GDR was refused visas on at least 35 different occasions by Italy, the USA, France, Holland, Great Britain, Norway, Belgium, Denmark, Iceland, Portugal, Spain, Japan and Switzerland. This did not include refusals by the FRG. • In the same period, some twelve GDR sports teams departed to international sports events in France, Great Britain, Holland, Denmark, Portugal, the USA, Norway and Mexico. • On other occasions, the award ceremony would be canceled if a GDR athlete won an event. During this period, almost every international competition where GDR athletes appeared was interrupted by the controversy over the flag, emblem and designation of the GDR delegation.